Earth and stone,wood and water, land- scapes and panoramas – from its solid foundation to its lofty observation deck and all throughout its sweeping 5,500- acres – Skytop Lodge has become a premier planners’destination in the Pocono Mountains.
It’s that storybook place you’ve undoubtedly seen before when gazing upon whimsical black-and-white pho- tos of happy vacationers’cavorting on long green lawns or reclining richly on pillar lined porches. Or perhaps you know it from personal experience via family trips with parents or grandpar- ents to the Poconos or the Catskills.
Sometime in your life you’ve been here before,even if you’ve never actually visited.
Today, this iconic hotel intersperses modern aesthetics with a tradition toward early 20th-century refinement. And,now, thanks to extensive renova- tions to all 124 of the main lodge’s guest rooms and the 20 rooms within its nearby inn, Skytop remains that stone-cut/wooden beamed image of true Americana: with a full-service conference center,an Adventure
86 November December 2016
Center bringing an out-of-doors team building focus to the impressive prop- erty, and an activities department to create an engagingly-immersive experi- ence, Skytop transcends the“It’s good for family vacations”or ”A nice place to hold a wedding”reputation (although that’s still true on both counts!) to serve as a premier spot for corporate events,conveniently located less than two hours from NewYork City, Philadelphia,and the Baltimore/ Washington,DC corridor.
“We’ve endeavored in our most exten- sive reinvestment here in the last fif- teen years,”General Manager Jeff Rudder proudly asserts.“The Mountain View rooms [in the main lodge] have been given a deep red vibrant scheme to pick up on the colors of the sunset. LakeView rooms now have a rich blue motif,and Garden rooms provide a pinkish hue to accentuate the hand- painted mural behind each bed’s headboard.”
“We are in the business of creating memories at Skytop,”this resort indus- try veteran proudly states. “And that was the mindset for taking on these reinvigorations.”
From the moment I pull up to impres- sive entrance, I immediately notice a change of both attitude and aesthetics since my last visit here in 2009. That trip had been an adequate one, although, to be honest, I probably wouldn’t have classified it at the time, as being a place seeming to be on a fast-track toward positive ascension. The fact was,back on that chilly December day exactly seven years ago, I can recall no proper greeting or offer of luggage assistance upon my arrival. The suite I lodged in (Room 422) needed updating. That night,after a nice meal in theWindsor Dining Room (I still recall the incessant scritch- scritch-scritch sound of servers walking across dried out padding beneath faded carpeting), I later grabbed a drink at a small downstairs bar; a nice enough establishment but not exactly what I’d call elegant.
Oh, how things have changed at Skytop!
This time around I am welcomed by Robert, the suave doorman,who flings the front entranceway wide in greeting while hospitably offering to take my
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